A survey from wmpoweruser suggests Samsung may be the early leader in Windows Phone, stealing a title that was expected to be held by HTC. The survey polled 1500 Windows Phone users and asked which brand of Windows Phone handset they purchased. The results revealed that 51% own a Samsung handset, 37% own an HTC handset, 9% own an LG handset, and a mere 3% own a Dell-branded Windows Phone handset.
Long the darling of Windows Mobile, HTC was a preferred launch partner and was expected to be the early leader in this new mobile platform. Among the respondents to this survey, though, HTC is a full 15 percentage points behind leader Samsung.
This early lead by Samsung is surprising when you consider that the Korean manufacturer launched with two handsets (Focus and Omnia 7), while HTC launched with four (Mozart, Surround, HD7, and Trophy). Of course, these results should be taken with a grain of salt as they are not broken down by country and have a relatively small sample size.
Interestingly enough, Samsung is also the market leader for Android selling over 6.6 million Android handsets in Q3 2010 alone. Earlier this year, the Korean company committed itself to Android and moved 50% of its smartphone lineup to Google’s mobile OS. Propelled by its popular Galaxy S series of handsets, the Korean company beat out both HTC and Motorola to take this top spot.
Samsung has made a similar committment to Windows Phone for 2011 and is promising to move the bulk of its smartphone portfolio over to Microsoft’s mobile platform. With competition heating up in the smartphone market, it will be interesting to watch this battle for dominance play out in the upcoming year. Anyone care to guess ahead and pick next year’s winner for Windows Phone?
[Via wmpoweruser]